Iraq and nearby states call for bigger UN role in Iraq

Kuwait City (dpa) - Foreign ministers of Iraq and its neighbouring countries called on the United Nations Sunday to play a bigger role in post-war Iraq and emphasized the importance of the nation's unity and sovereignty.
Iraq's interim Foreign Minister Hoshayar Zebari said separately that Iraq and its neighbours agreed to form joint security committees to curb infiltration by "terrorist groups'' into the country.

Following a two-day conference in Kuwait City foreign ministers from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Kuwait, Iran and Turkey along with Egypt and Bahrain urged the U.N. to play a bigger role in Iraq's transitional period into self governance, while maintaining the importance of Iraqi unity and sovereignty.

The ministers said in a communique issued after the conference that among the ways the U.N. could increase its support would be to provide technical assistance to help Iraqis draft a new constitution.

Responsibilities for the world body would be to "prepare the ground for the withdrawal of occupying powers as soon as possible, and provide advice and technical expertise for formulating the constitution, holding elections, and expediting the transfer of power,'' it said.

The U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority currently governing Iraq has agreed to hand over power to the Iraqis by July 1. U.N. representative Lakhdar Brahimi, who has just completed a mission in Iraq to assess the feasibility of holding early elections, also attended the Kuwait City meeting.

Brahimi's mission concluded that the time span between now and July 1 was not sufficient to prepare the nation for general elections.

The United States would like to see an electoral system of caucuses employed, instead of direct elections.

The final statement also condemned the terror attacks that have targeted security forces, civilians, Iraqi policemen, humanitarian and religious groups.

Iraq's Zebari told reporters that he thought neighbouring states could do more to help terrorist infiltration by setting up more stringent border controls. He said Iraq requested help from its neighbours to help curb terrorist group infiltrations.

The request was not mentioned in the final communique. However, "they gave a positive response,'' Zebari said noting that the matter would be followed up by joint-security committees involving Iraq and bordering states.

The goal would be to stop infiltration by criminal groups who have been carrying out attacks against the Iraqi people, he said.

"We believe that these countries could do more to help on this issue,'' he added.

Bombings and small arms assaults against security forces killed more than 100 Iraqis in the last week alone.

Also during the conference Iraq said it was ready to sign a non-aggression pact with its neighbours under U.N. supervision.

"We confirm that the new Iraq is trying best to achieve harmony with neighbouring states, instead of the past experience of contradiction and opposition that prevailed during the ousted regime's era,'' Zebari said on Saturday.

Foreign ministers from Iraq's neighbours held four previous gatherings since the March 2003 invasion, but this is the first meeting attended by an Iraqi foreign minister and a senior U.N. representative.

Security in Kuwait was visibly stepped-up for the conference, with police and armoured vehicles patrolling the downtown area around the hotel where the meeting was being held.

Some Arab political observers were critical of the meeting, saying that it had no clear aim and could not change policy inside Iraq, which is currently ruled by an Iraqi Interim Governing Council and the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority.

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